The Dirty Dwarf (Open For Business)

anrix2

Hello, I have finished and published my second foundry quest. This one is a lot shorter than Mage Masher, but like Mage Masher, this one is an investigation also, most context items are optional. I also toned down the combat, in hopes that this one will have more appeal to those wanting something to satisfy the daily. That being said, I am hoping it is just as fun as my first foundry quest. Beat up dwarves, battle your sins, and overcome evil.

Details are near maxed, NPCs are near maxed, sound is near maxed, so hopefully this provides a good atmosphere, this 3 room dungeon took me a near month to complete

The shortcode is NW-DUSXF6LXI

In Game Description:

Adventurers and dwarves have been disappearing in Mithril City. Your contact suspects it has something to do with a famed tavern in Drunkard's Alley. Head to this haven of debauchery and meet your contact.

Author:
The Dirty Dwarf is a short solo hack-n-slash investigation style mission. With the exception of the contact and the conclusion all information is stored on non-objective lore items, or optional contacts. Keep an eye on the mini-map, the optional contacts may or may not be the usual suspects.

Some advice, be careful when in the actual tavern. Everything in there is set to roam and their pathing is completely random, so results may vary. I suggest pulling back to areas that have been cleared. Additionally, you can dodge, knockoff, and/or get knocked off most of the ledges in there. Be careful and remain calm when fighting the final boss, just remember to circle about and avoid the red on the ground.

The tavern can range from easy to difficult so don't run in headlong.

The Entrance, anything more would reveal too much.



I will consider all feedback, and I am always looking for ways to improve and perfect what I have already published. So please be as critical as you would like, I have thick skin.

dzogen

I thought there was some really cool stuff in this. The environments were unique and i liked the whole sloth thing. Some really clever things like the mirror area for vanity.I did give you a 5 but for me it's probably a 4 right now...here's what I think needs to happen:

1) combat is tough - i was on my tr, but i know my higher level gwf couldn't handle this. maybe you want a difficulty slider?
2) there were a few points where it wasn't intuititive where i needed to go next..i'm an admittedly lazy gamer, I don't like running around without knowing where to go too much. I do like waypoints with points for some of these.
3) where you have to kill 10/10 patrons in the beginning, it was weird because i know you grouped them, beacause id killl them, and nothing moved on the meter. non-authors may think this is weird. maybe just change the objective to kill the son, because honestly...youre going to have to clear the room anyway to make it thru.
4) the last boss is a little scary, i don't know if that's intended but you have almost zero room to move, and a high likelihood of getting knocked off. so i fought with my back to the wall. may want to give some ranged classes more room to maneuver but that's your call.

all in all though great quest..i can tell a ton of time went into this

OH btw...I think I caught an x-rated scene in there...I was pretty much loling on that one

anrix2

Thanks for all the useful feedback. I agree with you, the combat is not where I want it to be, especially in the tavern. I have all those encounters set to find until submission, because I don't want them killed, so they just kind of roam where ever they want, and form these instant kill clusters. I am working on fixing this. I may even pull the quest until I can iron it out, it is just a shame the behavior in the Foundry doesn't match the live game, because those roamers just stand still in the foundry. I will change the objective to just the son, you will ultimately need to clear the bar to get to him and then the door. I also reward some of the story dialogue to reference that.

I also just realized the most non-intuitiveness point is the arcane code, I am adding a pointer for that, also I will add an objective as to where the arcane code should be used. I want this to be a quick adventure.

Yeah, that last boss is meant to be scary. I tested it with a CW, but I am in a better position to fight him than most, because I fought him 1390850193 times and know how to dodge him without needing a lot of space. I kind of want this to be a fight that raises the players blood pressure without griefing. So I am going to have to work on something to balance this.

And as for that scene...you should have seen it before the first review advised me to change it...it was a triple X scene, and lets just say stoke emote was never meant to be used how I used it lol

But what can I do, the theme of this quest is sins, and that is one of the seven deadly sins

I'll withdraw this quest, until I can get your feedback implemented, along with the recommendation for boss music.

dzogen

i dont think you really have to pull it.
the combat in tavern was fine, i just thought the objective was off
i wouldn't pull the x scene- it was pretty funny

anrix2

I republished, changed some wording of objectives, and added some new objectives to make the transition through the adventure a little more intuitive and quicker. The objective change also included some pointers. My goal is to hover around 15 minutes playtime.

All the fights in the bar are between easy and standard, I am still trying to figure out how to stagger them a little so the place doesn't get overwhelming for melee. I added the boss music...which surprisingly, was the worst update in terms of giving me difficulty. I didn't realize all the music at the room level needed to be turned off for this to work, then added back in as sound nodes with what seems to be non overlapping constraints with other sound nodes.

I am still thinking about how to handle that final boss, I want it to be a challenge but not over the top. I think I may bring that paladin in sooner as a guard encounter on a timer...it would just look bad...or hysterical when the boss one shots the savior of the dungeon. But I am going to do something.

Other than that I think I am going to have to wait for more feedback on the combat before I can tune it some more. Were there any fights not in the tavern and not the boss that were troubling? I have a difficulty slider on my other quest, but it inhibited me from doing some triggering mechanics later on, I kind of want this to be a one size fits all solo combat adventure that leans more on average difficulty instead of challenging, just as a change compared to what I had put out as my first quest, which was a challenging solo or multiplayer hack-n-slash.

Thanks again Dzogen for taking the time out to run the quest and getting it out of Beta Hell, you are the fifth review, and gave me some valuable feedback.

lolsorhand

anrix2 wrote: »

I republished, changed some wording of objectives, and added some new objectives to make the transition through the adventure a little more intuitive and quicker. The objective change also included some pointers. My goal is to hover around 15 minutes playtime.

All the fights in the bar are between easy and standard, I am still trying to figure out how to stagger them a little so the place doesn't get overwhelming for melee. I added the boss music...which surprisingly, was the worst update in terms of giving me difficulty. I didn't realize all the music at the room level needed to be turned off for this to work, then added back in as sound nodes with what seems to be non overlapping constraints with other sound nodes.

I am still thinking about how to handle that final boss, I want it to be a challenge but not over the top. I think I may bring that paladin in sooner as a guard encounter on a timer...it would just look bad...or hysterical when the boss one shots the savior of the dungeon. But I am going to do something.

Other than that I think I am going to have to wait for more feedback on the combat before I can tune it some more. Were there any fights not in the tavern and not the boss that were troubling? I have a difficulty slider on my other quest, but it inhibited me from doing some triggering mechanics later on, I kind of want this to be a one size fits all solo combat adventure that leans more on average difficulty instead of challenging, just as a change compared to what I had put out as my first quest, which was a challenging solo or multiplayer hack-n-slash.

Thanks again Dzogen for taking the time out to run the quest and getting it out of Beta Hell, you are the fifth review, and gave me some valuable feedback.

Depending on the area, you can put them on a patrol to delay them.

technoskald

Totally dug this. You need a campfire at the beginning and the unexpected jumping puzzle at the end after the chest is, well, diabolical... great work!

anrix2

lolsorhand wrote: »

Depending on the area, you can put them on a patrol to delay them.

The groups are all set to fight to submission, I didn't want the dwarves to be killed because they are only out having a good time, even though they are drunk as can be and over confident with beer muscles.

That means I can't get them to patrol in a particular way or they become killable, the fight to submission makes them roam freely. I think I may have to bite the bullet and thin the herd. Dzogen suggestion to rename the objective to just beat up the owner's son allows me to do this with minimum impact to the story. I was just hoping there was some other way.

I think I am also going to add something to the boss, like a friendly encounter on a timer.

technoskald wrote: »

Totally dug this. You need a campfire at the beginning and the unexpected jumping puzzle at the end after the chest is, well, diabolical... great work!

Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it. Unfortunately we are only allowed one campfire, so I put it in the middle thinking that would be the best place for it. I will try to do what I did with Mage Masher, and put the fire sooner in the quest, with portals going back to it later in the quest. I am just going to need to think about doing this in a meaningful and interesting way.

I'll also go through the dialogue again and try to get all those errors as per your in game review.

Thanks everyone, I'll try to release a 1.2.0 with all of your suggestions as soon as I can, along with any other feed back I get today.

anrix2

I am withdrawing this quest for the evening. I have some timer events that seem to be working in the foundry but not live. I have no clue what is causing this. I tried traps, friendly encounters, and dropping mobs to their death. All of this worked in the foundry none of it worked in live. I apologize to anyone who attempted this quest in the interim as I was testing it live.

anrix2

I finally got those timer events working in live. For whatever reason I needed to re-title the dungeon, so v 1.2.1 has the two timer events. I will be releasing another version today with technoskald suggestion. I will be making a campfire room with teleporters linking to it, in order to make the campfire more accessible throughout the quest...now the challenge of making decent room with less than 20 details to spend =X

anrix2

Thank you to everyone who has left feedback. I have incorporate all of it into 1.2.2.

I am really curious as to how the timer event on the last boss fight will be interpreted. I look forward to reading more of the community's thoughts.

Thanks again.

kamaliicious

It's very visually impressive. I didn't really pay attention to the story because I was tired, but I remember the visuals.

anrix2

Thank you, I put a lot more time into my environments than I do in my writing. I try to have the atmosphere play out the story, which is why all the reading is optional - well most of it. The 3 rooms the quest plays out in took me nearly a month to decorate, half of that time was spent in the last room. I try not to post screens because it would spoil the experience imo, doesn't help my marketing any which is probably why my quests don't get a lot of plays despite their setup

anrix2

Thank you to everyone who reviewed this quest. I think it is in its final state, I struggled over the last few days getting the timers to behave consistently between the foundry test and live, and player levels. I think I nailed them, and with that I think I am finished working on this one. If anyone wants to help me out I only need 8 more reviews until it is eligible for daily

anrix2

I withdrew this quest for the last couple of days because I added a final boss room, I also injected a couple more reach objectives to carry the player from point to point. Additionally thanks to Shorlong there is now a easter egg as well. Hopefully the conclusion is a lot more epic than the previous version.